We spend over a third of our lives asleep and, according to scientists we enjoy between three and six dreams a night. Dreams are intensely personal experiences, known only to the dreamer unless they choose to share them with someone. They are visual experiences and often, mere words are not enough to convey the subtle nuances involved. We all have unique dreams woven from the threads of our conscious lives, our hopes, fears, memories and imagination. The power to interpret dreams has occupied the great and the good in every generation for centuries. In the distant past, dream interpreters could make themselves powerful and invaluable to princes and rulers, and today there are many books, magazines and websites devoted to understanding dreams.

Many ancient cultures set great store by their dreams and use them to influence their daily activities. For example; The ancient Chinese regarded dreams as the experiences of the soul, which went wondering while the body slept. A bit like an out-of-body experience. The Tibetan Book of the Dead, calls dreaming an intermediate stage between life and death, and many Tibetans believe that sleep is a necessary preparation for the inevitable.